


just like where you came from (just like where you're going to)

by orange_yarn



Series: and the wonder of the moment sticks to me (TAZ Hogwarts AU) [2]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Alternate Universe - Middle School, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-18 01:48:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17571980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orange_yarn/pseuds/orange_yarn
Summary: Lup steals a book. Julia goes stargazing. Taako accidentally makes a friend, or three.(Part two of a TAZ Hogwarts AU, set during their first year as students. Can technically be read before "saw my face in the mirror (though I know I've changed)."





	just like where you came from (just like where you're going to)

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, friends! Welcome to part two of the AU that has taken over my life! This is the first "flashback" story, and it's about their first year as Hogwarts students. Fun fact! I wrote this AU chronologically, so the first drafts of a few of these scenes were written at a Nano Midnight Kick-Off Party. 
> 
> This installment is dedicated to a deer my sister and I saw while we were hiking and plotting out this story. We heard a branch snap, and there she was, like a beautiful nature goddess there to bestow a blessing upon us. We stared at each other for a minute, and then she took off further into the trees. She was lovely.
> 
> No pairings, and way less swear words because they are literally children in this one. Warning for a very brief reference to Lup being misgendered (prior to the events of this story). Title is from "Pioneers" by The Lighthouse and the Whaler. Unbetaed, but I might do some more minor edits this week -- I promised to post this today, and I need to get to sleep because I teach children for a living.

-+-

  


“I knew it,” Lup says, her voice hushed and reverent. She’s clutching a letter, written on thick yellow parchment. Her hands are trembling, but her voice is steady. The envelope is addressed to them both, and was sealed with a red wax stamp. “I _knew_ it. I _told_ you. Didn’t I tell you?”

“Let me see.” Taako reaches for the letter, but Lup shakes her head, her eyes tracking across the page again, and again, and again. “Lup, let me see it.”

She doesn’t let go, but she does scoot a little further down the bed, making room for Taako to clamber up next to her. He presses up against her, so close he can feel her heart hammering in her chest as he reads the letter for himself.

_We are pleased to inform you..._

  


-+-

  


When the twins were nine years old, a boy at their foster home got his acceptance letter. They’d heard a little about Hogwarts by then, but their knowledge was cobbled together, bits and pieces salvaged from overhead conversations. They were elves, so of course they’d grown up in the magical world, but getting shuttled around like they did, they were only ever on the fringes -- they knew magic _existed_ , they just didn’t know the shape of it -- but here was actual, physical proof of a secret magic school in the countryside.

Lup was _obsessed_ , after that. When the other boy came home from a shopping trip to Diagon Alley, she swiped his copy of _Hogwarts: A History_. She kept it hidden until they got shuffled off to another home, and then another, and another. It was never easy to sleep in a new place, so the twins would lay awake for hours, both huddled under the covers of Taako’s bed. Lup would read her favorite passages aloud, until they were too exhausted to keep their eyes open. When he finally drifted off, Taako would dream of magic spells and moving staircases.

“I’ll be in Gryffindor, _obviously_ ,” Lup said one afternoon, brandishing a broom handle like a sword, and waving it in Taako’s direction, a playful challenge. “Brave? Check. Daring and courageous? Ch-check.”

Taako rolled his eyes and batted the broom out of the way, focused on the dirty dishes in the sink. “Where do they put the kids who don’t do their chores?”

Lup hummed, thinking it over. “Probably still Gryffindor.”

“Well then, you’ll fit right in,” Taako said. He yelped as Lup lunged at him with the broom handle, and then he splashed her with soapy water from the sink.

A floorboard creaked upstairs, and both twins fell still and silent. Ten, twenty, thirty seconds passed before they could breathe easy again.

Their newest home was nice, so far -- the lady was kind, and said they could call her their Aunt, if they wanted. She had been teaching them to cook and most importantly, was the first in a long line of guardians not to bat an eye when she ended up with a boy and girl, rather than the two boys their case manager had mentioned. They did have a lot of chores, but their Aunt was _super old_ and couldn’t do much herself. If chores were the worst of it, Taako wasn’t going to complain.

“What about me?” Taako asked, once the moment had passed, and then instantly regretted it. He did his best not to get swept up in Lup’s elaborate fantasies. He wanted it, too, and just as desperately, but the fleeting joy of hoping for something wonderful wasn’t worth the risk of disappointment when it inevitably went bad.

“Duh,” Lup said, and then she flicked his ear, earning a scowl from her brother. “We’ll be together. You’re stuck with me, baby bro.” She sounded so certain, so sure, that Taako couldn’t imagine it any other way.

  


-+-

  


It takes the twins exactly six minutes to figure out the secret to Platform 9 ¾. King’s Cross Station is crowded, but not chaotic. There are commuters, entrenched in their own familiar routines, groups heading to or from a holiday, but mostly there are families, parents pushing carts loaded down with trunks and cases, or ushering their children along, children looking excited, or anxious, or both.

“There,” Lup says, jabbing Taako in the ribs with a sharp elbow. She nods to a family, weaving their way through the throngs of people. A boy, maybe a few years old than them, a girl a few years younger, clinging to her mother’s hand, and a father, pushing an overflowing cart. Stacked on top of the trunks is a cage, and inside that cage is a great, tawny owl. It even looks a little like the owl that crashed into the window of their foster home over a month ago. It had nipped at Lup’s fingers as she deftly untied the leather cord and opened their Hogwarts acceptance letter. It had seemed too good to be true.

It _still_ seems too good to be true.

The twins are silent, watching with careful eyes as the family approaches the barrier between platforms 9 and 10. The boy is calm, and moves with purpose, heading straight for the barrier. Instead of colliding, he steps _through_ the brick wall, the girl and their parents and the cart following right behind him.

Taako and Lup exchange a glance. Lup raises her eyebrows. Taako shrugs.

All of their belongings fit in a single rolling suitcase. Lup grabs the handle with one hand, and Taako’s wrist with the other, and tugs them both through the wall.

  


-+-

  


By the time they board the gleaming scarlet train, there’s exactly one empty compartment left. Lup leads him inside, and he follows without question or complaint, collapsing into the seat while Lup crams their suitcase into the cubby overhead -- most of the other students were storing their trunks in the undercarriage, but they weren’t about to let their bag out of their sight.

“So far, so good,” Lup says, dropping down to sit beside him. “Told you I’d figure it out,” she adds, with a lot of confidence for someone who didn’t get a wink of sleep the night before -- Taako only knows because he couldn’t sleep, either.

“I knew you would,” Taako tells her, with the confidence of someone whose sister has a knack for bending reality to her will. A week after their letter came, she’d announced that she’d found out how to get into Diagon Alley -- a place they’d heard of, but never actually visited. The day after that, Taako stood shivering in an alley behind a dingy pub while Lup’s friend knocked a strange pattern on a brick wall. Then, that wall melted away, and a narrow, packed street was laid before them. The two of them had spent the day skulking in an out of a dozen cozy shops. They cobbled together one set of supplies to share between them, and figured that would just have to be good enough.

The compartment door slides open, and Taako tenses up, halfway convinced that it’s the conductor, there to drag them off the train and back to their Aunt’s home. But instead--

“Oh,” says a voice, and Taako flicks his ears towards the sound. “Is...anyone sitting here?”

“Looks like you are,” Lup answers. Taako turns to scowl at his sister, for not coming up with an excuse, or for always wanting to make friends, he's not sure yet. When he moves, he catches sight of the two intruders. They’re both human -- the girl has warm brown skin and a head of curls, and she’s almost as tall at the boy to to her left -- he’s broad-shouldered and freckled, with tousled auburn hair. The boy offers them a wave and a wide grin.

“Thanks,” the girl says, shuffling inside and dropping into the opposite seat. The boy tugs the compartment door closed, and sits beside her. “I’m Julia,” the girl offers. “And this is Magnus.” The boy -- Magnus -- waves again.

“I’m Lup,” his sister answers, then she hikes a thumb in this direction. “He’s Taako.”

“Are you elves?” Magnus blurts out. In response, Taako curls his upper lip and almost, sort of, bares his teeth. Magnus shrinks back, just a little, and says, “Cool.”

“You’ve never met elves before?” Lup asks, genuinely puzzled. Magnus and Julia exchange a glance before looking back to the twins and shaking their heads.

“I mean, we saw all kinds of people in Diagon Alley,” Julia hedges, and Magnus nods emphatically. “And I think some of them _maybe_ were elves, but I didn’t want to _assume--_ ”

“--We had to get _wizard money_ ,” Magnus cuts in, excited, “And there was a whole store full of flying broomsticks, and--”

There’s a long, loud whistle, mercifully cutting off their conversation, and the train lurches into motion. Out on the platform, parents are waving and crying, while kids lean out the windows and shout good-bye. No one came to see the twins off -- their Aunt would have liked to, but she wasn’t up to the trip. Instead, she hugged them both and made them promise to write. Taako had weighed her offer, carefully measured it, and decided that maybe he'd take her up on that.

He spends most of the ride tucked tightly between the window and Lup, with his forehead pressed into the cool pane. His breath fogs up the glass, and he pretends not to listen as Julia and Magnus tell practically their entire life stories. They were next-door neighbors, and had been best friends for as long as either could remember. Magnus had moved in with Julia and her father a few months earlier, but he doesn’t say why. The only vaguely interesting thing is that both were from Muggle families, and hadn’t even known about magic until they got their letters.

“You two grew up with magic, though,” Julia says, while Magnus barters with the lady from the snack trolley. “What do you know about Hogwarts?”

Lup grins, wide and wild, like this is exactly the question she’s been waiting for. “Oh, I know _everything_.”

  


-+-

  


Taako’s seen some things, in his short life, but even he’s not prepared for the brim of the hat to open up wide, and he’s definitely not prepared for the hat to start _singing_. It’s not even a good song, is the thing, it’s just an infodump about the four Hogwarts houses, rattling off the same list of character traits that Lup could recite by heart.

The Great Hall is _freezing_ , especially for a young elf who got soaked through on the miserable boat ride across the lake. He burrows into Lup’s side to try and leech some of her warmth, as subtle as he can. Lup grabs onto his hand and squeezes tight.

“It’ll be fine,” she promises, leaning in to whisper, her breath warm in his ear. “All we have to do is put on the Sorting Hat.”

“It’s really ugly, though,” Taako complains, whispering right back, and Lup stifles a giggle. He wants to say, what if it splits us up? He can’t bring himself to say it aloud, afraid to jinx them both.

But Lup knows him, and she adds, “It can read our minds, right? It’ll be able to see we’re the same, and that we belong together.”

“Yeah,” Taako says, around the lump in his throat, and then a second later a woman in a long black robe and a slightly less ugly hat calls for Lup. She’s all bravado as she stalks up to the three legged stool, dropping herself down and plopping the hat on her head.

A beat passes, and then the hat shouts, “Gryffindor!” The far table erupts in cheers, and Lup flashes Taako a thumbs up before she practically sashays over to the table. She takes a seat next to Magnus, from the train, and Taako doesn’t miss the way she leaves him a wide open space on her other side, just waiting for him.

 _The brave of heart_ , the hat had said, and Taako is...not actually so sure that describes him the way it describes Lup -- but it’s like she said. The hat can see inside their minds, it will know they belong together. He can be brave, if Lup needs him to be.

He barely gets a chance to take a breath and calm his nerves before the witch up front is calling his name. He manages to school his expression, and he walks up to the stool and takes a seat, looking all the while like he could not care less. He dons the hat in a way that hopefully looks bored.

In an instant, the chatter of the Great Hall is drowned out, and there’s only a tiny buzzing in his head, like white noise, like his ears are ringing. “Well, that’s an easy one,” a voice says, in his mind, and Taako breathes a sigh of relief. When the voice speaks again, it’s shouting, loud enough for everyone in the hall to hear.

_“Slytherin!”_

  


-+-

  


The evening passes in a haze. More names are called, one after another, until finally _Waxmen, Julia_ is sorted into Gryffindor, and the ceremony ends. The gleaming golden plates on the table suddenly, magically, fill with food -- everything looks and smells amazing. Taako knows better than to pass up a meal, but he doesn’t enjoy a single bite of it.  A few other kids from his table try and coax him into conversation, but he doesn’t say a word, and he doesn’t make eye contact.

Eventually, the plates and leftovers vanish, the headmaster makes some announcements that Taako doesn’t even listen to, and the Prefects are instructed to usher the first years back to their dorms. Taako tries to make a break for it, but his table is the absolute farthest from Lup’s, and the tide of students practically washes him out into the hall with everyone else.

He doesn’t get another chance until late that night. The minutes crawl by as he lays curled up under the sheets of his four-poster bed -- and maybe, if he wasn’t so miserable, he could appreciate the finery, the silken seats, the pillow-soft mattress. Finally, the last of his new roommates fall asleep, their breathing deep and even. He slips out from under the covers, and pads out of the room on silent feet.

The Slytherin dorms are in the dungeons, so everything is cold and dark and probably mildewed. The common room is all stones and pillars, lit with eerie green lights, and the windows stare out into the inky depths of the Great Lake. Whoever designed this place was _way_ into snakes -- they’re carved into practically every surface, including a massive one right over the fireplace, with flashing emerald eyes.

Taako _hates_ it.

No one stops him as he slips out of the common room -- he doesn’t have much of a plan, other than _find Lup_ , and as he peers down the cavernous hallway, he realizes he doesn’t even know where to start looking. They’d gotten a whirlwind tour of the school after dinner, and it was everything that _Hogwarts: A History_ had described, and more -- whispering portraits, suits of armor clanking around on their own, and actual, literal ghosts that had come bursting through the wall. Taako can practically hear his sister’s voice, reading passages aloud with a fervent devotion. He can almost convince himself that she willed this place into existence, except he’d be with her right now, instead of wandering aimlessly through the halls.

Fifteen minutes later, he’s studying a painting of an old white guy, snoozing in his frame, when he hears--

“Taako?”

He turns on a dime, and there’s Lup, rounding the corner and barreling down the hall towards him. He moves a half step toward her, but she’s already closed most of the distance and crashes into him, wrapping both arms around him a fierce hug. He takes a minute to just breathe, tucked up against her -- they’ve only been apart for a few hours, but in an unfamiliar and honestly overwhelming place, it’s too long.

After a moment, Lup pulls away, looking up and down the hallway. They’re alone, but she grabs him by the wrist and tugs him through the closest door, into what looks like an empty classroom -- rows of desks, and a podium up front, with a chalkboard behind it. Moonlight creeps in through the open windows, giving just enough light to make out his sister’s features. She’s searching his face, and frowning thoughtfully.

“Taako,” she starts, and there’s something in her voice, a hesitation that he’s never heard before, not from her. “Taako, listen--”

“You said it would keep us together,” he cuts in, his voice flat.

“I hoped it would,” Lup admits, still frowning, except now it looks a little guilty. “I mean, I thought it _probably_ would--”

"--What’s that supposed to mean?” Taako demands, pulling back just a fraction, but Lup’s still got her fingers wrapped around his wrist. He looks his sister dead in the eyes and asks, “You knew this would happen?”

“No,” Lup answers, quickly, and then she tightens her grip and says, “It’s just, I’ve been thinking about it a lot, since we got the letter, and you really are perfect in Slytherin.” She lets go of his wrist, only to catch both of his hands up in her own, interlocking their fingers. “And anyway, I was talking to some of the upperclassmen -- they said that we have class with kids from other houses, and we can see each other at meals, and in study hall, and free time -- it’s really not that bad!”

Taako knows his sister. He knows that she’s dreamed of this place so desperately, for so long. He knows that she would give it up in a heartbeat, if he asked her to. And he knows that no matter how miserable he feels right now, he can’t take this away from her. He won’t.

He takes a breath, and says, “Yeah. Okay.” He nods, mostly to himself. “You’re right.”

“ _Of course_ I’m right,” she says, rolling her eyes, but he can see the way her shoulders slump, tension bleeding out of her. She pauses a moment, just staring at him, before she smiles, and squeezes his hands. She says, “We’re gonna be okay,” and Taako tries very, very hard to believe her.

  


-+-

**Author's Note:**

> I cannot tell a lie, I was so worried that people would @ me about my Hogwarts House sorting that I almost didn't want to post this series. My sister and I put a lot of thought into this, and I feel good about where we put everybody. 
> 
> So many of you said such nice things about the first story, so I hope you are still enjoying the ride! Right now I have this marked as two chapters. All in all this installment is about ten thousand words, so I will either post one more LONG chapter, or two shorter chapters. We'll see.
> 
> I'm orange_yarn on tumblr, Twitter is probably a lost cause. See you on Sunday!


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